Description:

Thomas Edison
Menlo Park, NY, August 17, 1877
Thomas Edison Twice Signed Letter Re: First NY Telephone Line in Patent Lawyer's Office
ALS

A twice-signed autograph letter signed by Thomas Edison concerning new telephone lines running through New York City buildings. 1p, measuring 7.5" x 9.75", Menlo Park, dated August 17, 1877. Signed "TA Edison" without Edison's trademark "umbrella" flourish, and again signed "E." after the postscript. Writing to William Orton, president of the Western Union Telegraph Co., Edison discusses New York telephone lines and recent legal entanglements with the Patent office. The letter is accompanied by a newspaper clipping which references the telephone line Edison mentions. The letter has flattened folds, with chipping and separations at the folds. Some paper loss affecting minimal text. Holes at the upper left corner from removed staples. Some ink blots to the text, including to the signature after the postscript. Boldly signed.

Reading in full:
"The Telephone line spoken of here as running into the Zientung [sic] building runs into Dickerson & Brooman's [sic] office, is Mr. Dickerson attorney for Gardiner G. Hubbard & the Telephone?

P.S. I am in interference in the Patent office with young Dickerson on a late Quadruplex application."

The Telephone Company of New York established its headquarters in New York in May 1877, and while there is no definite record of the first pair of telephones installed for use in New York City, it is believed that a number of telephones were sent out from Boston in April and May of 1877. According the late Wilton L. Richards, a pair of telephones was installed in early May 1877 at Charles Cheever's rooms at 89 Fifth Avenue and the house of "a friend in Thirty-fourth Street." It was reported by the New York Daily Tribune on May 3, 1900 that "He (Cheever) erected…the first telephone line in New York City", and the friend's house was that of Edward Nicoll Dickerson, whose firm Dickerson & Beaman was located in the Staats Zeitung Building.

Edward N. Dickerson was a technical expert and eminent patent lawyer who was involved in suits involving the electrical patents of Thomas A. Edison, and the rights of the Western Union Telegraph Company and the American Bell Telephone Company. He had served as one of the main attorneys for Western Union in the Quadruplex Case, cross-examining Edison for several days. The case involved conflicting claims over the ownership of Edison's quadruplex patents—a telegraph designed to send four messages simultaneously along the same wire. Western Union, run by President Orton, adopted the invention and had 13,000 miles of quadruplex lines by 1878.

The Staats-Zeitung was founded in New York City in 1834 by a group of German-American businessmen as a German-language newspaper. The first issue was published on December 24, 1834, and it is still active today.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.5" x 9.75"
  • Medium: ALS

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